Worm counts- advice needed from livery YO/M's

ChestnutConvert

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I now run a small livery yard and am planning to do worm counts before worming the horses. If i arrange the counts is it then fair to charge the owners for this?
They already pay for the wormer that is given, so if any is needed they will have to pay for both.

Is it fair or should i just worm the old fashioned way??
 
Yes totally fair and they should agree too as most of the time you should find they will not be paying as much as the majority of worm counts should come back as negative.
 
Yep totally fair. I'm a livery client rather than YO/YM but we are expected to keep our horses in overnight so YO can get samples. We then pay £10 for the count and £15 for any wormer required. Its for my horses benefit as I don't want either of them having chemicals they don't need so why shouldn't I pay for it? My two were done about 2 weeks ago. Older mare was clear, baby boy wasn't so I paid £35 for the whole process. But it's worth it as I prefer worm counting to standard worm programmes
 
May I suggest you gather up all the information and have a little "meeting" perhaps over a cup of something nice.

Tell them what you are thinking of doing - explain to them that it COULD save them money and all other benefits. Tell them how much extra it will cost if it does NOT cut down on worming and ask for feedback.

Ask them to go away and mull it over and come back invidually and then they won't feel pressurised.

best of luck!
 
Yes because if their horses come back negative there is no need to worm them, as i dont believe in over worming !!

Do remember, though, that horses can still have tapeworm even if a worm count is negative, so you should routinely either worm for tapeworm or have an ELISA blood test done.
 
My yard does this, we have set dates at the beginning of the year and we have to worm twice a year (March and Sept) and worm count twice (July and Dec / Jan) a year.

We have to pay for it, it's written in our contract, and you can't opt out.

In Sept we all had to worm for encysted small red worm as they don't show up on worm counts either.
 
Its part of our yard policy that the liveries follow the same worm counting /worming rountine that our own horses are on. Everyone has always been happy to go along with this, and we get a bit of discount for having more worm counts done.

All new horses that come on the yard are also worm counted before they're turned out with any of the current horses and if need be wormed before they go out with the others.

We've not had a positive worm count in any one (but new horses) in over 8 years following this routine, so it saves a lot of money, as well as being better for the horses!
 
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